Mercenary For The Money
by Vulcan Rider
Summary: Summary: Joe questions Ranger's motives and learns some hard truths. WARNING: Graphic language and sexual violence mentioned but not acted. Babe HEA
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Joe questions Ranger's motives and learns some hard truths.  
**WARNING: **Graphic language and sexual violence mentioned but not acted. Babe HEA

**Mercenary for the Money  
**by Vulcan Rider**  
**

A/N: I've had many thoughts run through my head, conversations that I could see happening, but never before put them down for anyone else to read. This is my first attempt at writing anything here, so please be kind. Thank you to those who have encouraged me to write something, anything. You gals know who you are, especially you, Margaret! :-)

**Disclaimer:** All recognizable characters belong to Janet Evanovich

**WARNING:** Graphic sexual violence referenced. Graphic language and scenarios from a bad mission. Mention of foreign sex trade of young girls, and the scene Ranger happens upon in his mission discussed. If these things disturb you, please be advised!

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Ranger saw Morelli waiting, hidden in the shadows as he walked out of the alley, relieved for once that Stephanie was so unaware of her surroundings. He walked Steph to her latest POS, kissing her once more before she drove off with a sweet smile on her face, then walked toward his adversary.

Morelli sneered at him, spittle flying from his mouth as he drove home his latest jibe. "Steph has some idealistic view of her hero, her "Batman" who can do no wrong. You come home after being gone for weeks and she thinks you've been off "saving the world." She doesn't realize you have no soul, how much you love the chance to play assassin for hire, and that you're only in it for the money. You don't give a shit about anyone but yourself, your glory and your fat bank account, that you use to seduce her away from the man who **loves** her, who wants to **marry** her."

Ranger almost never lost his tight leash on his control, but coming off this last mission, Morelli was able to find the right buttons to push and he hated it. Before he could regain his iron control, he had Joe raised off the ground by the grip on his collar while he hissed into his face, "Morelli, why don't you tell me that after **you've** gone into your third mission in a row, looking for young girls abducted by sex trade demons. After you've seen a roomful of girls chained to filthy beds, mattresses stained by semen and blood, with their legs strapped wide and their tiny little bodies spread open, gaping after multiple large, filthy men have been between their legs. Little girls and a few boys who no longer look anything like the photos in the jacket you were given at mission briefing.

"**You** look into the empty eyes of a 9 year old child that looks like the daughter you just visited three weeks before, and wonder if they're lucky because you got to them in time, or if the other two sets of girls were better off, because their captors got intel from corrupt officials and slit their throats moments before you arrived to rescue them. **You** look into the eyes of a four year old that could be your brother's little girl and tell me, 'it's all about the money,' you motherfucker." Morelli tried to hold his gaze, but his pale face turned away from Ranger's enraged eyes. Ranger released his collar and dropped him back to his feet. He started to walk away, then turned back.

"As for seducing Stephanie away from the man who **loves** her, who wants to **marry** her? You've never loved anyone but yourself, Morelli. At age 8 in your Daddy's garage when you were assaulting little kindergartners, or at age 18 when you "seduced" a sixteen year old girl on a nasty bakery floor, then walked away without looking back; but you couldn't leave it at that. You had to ruin her reputation by writing about it all over town, then running off to the Navy, leaving Stephanie to carry the burden of the gossip and shame, while this town you're **so** fucking proud of ripped her to shreds.

"Stephanie doesn't need that kind of _**LOVE**_. You don't love her, you just want to possess her, to show the 'Burg you won; that you finally got control of the girl that turned her back on everything she despised, that **they** wanted to turn her into. You want to trap her inside your house, cooking your meals, washing your clothes and sucking your cock; just so you can flip the finger at the 'Burg, who called you poor, white trash when you were a snot-nosed kid whose daddy drank away his paycheck, then came home and beat the fuck out of his wife and kids. You never _learned_ the meaning of the word love.

"You wonder why she doesn't want that life? Why she doesn't want to raise the next generation of assholes who think love is screaming at their girlfriends in public and berating them in front of friends? It's not because I seduced her away from you with my bank account or cars. It's because she finally figured out that **real love** is actually support and encouragement, even if it's something she's not the best at. It's picking her up, dusting her off and telling her she'll get him tomorrow, then making _**sure**_ she's got someone watching her back so she DOES. It's helping her to succeed and being happy when she feels proud of herself. **That's** the reason she ended your relationship last month and decided to move in with me.

"As for marriage, she's so fright-fucked of walking in to find Joyce Barnhardt on a table, or Terri Gilman in a negligee with you jumping out of a window for the neighbors to talk about, that even the _word_ marriage makes her nauseous. The ring that's been sitting in my safe for two years will be on her finger as soon as **she's** ready, not because her mother browbeat her into believing she needs it, in order to be a good 'Burg girl.

"Joe, you're so busy telling everyone how much you've grown up and changed, that you don't even see the reflection of your father in yourself. Go home and ask your mother if her husband beat her before they were married, or just criticized her and told her what all she needed to change. Ask her if he ever encouraged her to do anything for herself, or if he just humiliated her in front of friends in the early years of their marriage, back before the additional stress of feeding extra mouths gave him reason to draw his fists. You might want to do that really soon, too, because the one thing you've always sworn you'd never be, is exactly what I'm looking at." Joe's anger could be seen in his flashing eyes and the vein throbbing in his forehead.

"And Morelli, here's something else for you to chew on. How many Vice cops do you know, arrested for murder, even if they're eventually exonerated, are _**ever**_ invited to join an FBI task force? What's the normal procedure in those cases? Do you know of _**any**_ who've come out on top, who've made Homicide Detective after a murder rap, without someone **very** high up applying pressure to boost their careers?" Joe's face paled, as a shocked look crossed his face. His thoughts were easy to read, his cop face nowhere in sight.

"Morelli, **love** is making sure that the woman who means everything to you is taken care of financially, in the event she decides to marry someone else. It's boosting the career of a good cop, even if you think he's an asshole personally, because the woman you love just _might_ have married him before your government contracts were up, and you didn't want money problems to be the cause of bruises on her face or broken ribs that nobody else would see." Ranger walked away, stepped up into his truck and drove off, headed to Steph's apartment to help her pack. He never saw Joe step behind his own truck to throw up.


	2. Chapter 2 - Mirror Mirror

**Mercenary For The Money-Chapter 2**  
by: Vulcan Rider

Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to Janet Evanovich, and we thank her for letting us play with them.

**NOTE:** May 8, 2016 - Just making a few corrections before I get ready to post chapter 3. Sorry for the long wait.

**Mirror, Mirror**

Joseph Morelli, handsome, cocky, Italian heartthrob walked out from behind his truck, where he'd just emptied the contents of his stomach and looked around. There were several people standing at a distance, not even trying to hide the fact that they had been watching the scene unfold moments before. The almighty citizens of the 'Burg felt it was their _**right **_to know everything about everyone around them, no matter how private. And **that** scene had been anything but private. He had a thought, that this must be what it feels like to be Stephanie when he was going off on her at her incident scenes. It wasn't a pleasant thought. At all. Hopefully, though, they hadn't been able to hear the things Manoso had said to him with his furious, yet eerily quiet voice. He'd almost wished he'd yelled; he was used to being yelled at.

_"Joe, you're so busy telling everyone how much you've grown up and changed, that you don't even see the reflection of your father in yourself. Go home and ask your mother if her husband beat her before they were married, or just criticized her and told her what all she needed to change. Ask her if he ever encouraged her to do anything for herself, or if he just humiliated her in front of friends in the early years of their marriage, back before the additional stress of feeding extra mouths gave him reason to draw his fists. You might want to do that really soon, too, because the one thing you've always sworn you'd never be, is exactly what I'm looking at." _

He stepped up into his truck, pulled the bottle of water from his console and rinsed his mouth with it, before spitting it out on the ground and taking a drink to cool his throat. His thoughts were swirling around, catching on one thing after another; the Morelli curse, his parents, Stephanie, God...Stephanie, who'd moved in with Ranger a month before and was about to do the one thing she'd never do for _him_; give up her apartment. He pulled his door closed, then took a bottle of Maalox from his glove compartment, shook it and took a slug. Finally, he started his truck and headed to his house. He had some thinking to do.

After walking the big orange dog, he sat there on his couch, scratching Bob behind his ears, soaking up the companionship he'd depended on this past month. Finally, he came to the decision that he needed to talk to his mother. Ten minutes later, she opened her door to him with a big smile on her face which quickly turned into concern. She could always read his moods.

"What's wrong, son?" she asked him, as she led him into the kitchen. This was always her domain, the area he would come when he needed comfort. The smells so familiar to him. His thoughts went to times he would come there after his father would yell at him, then backhand him for whatever he'd done that day or hadn't done. At times, there wasn't even a reason, but he'd always make his way to the kitchen where his mother would put her arms around him and seat him at the table with a glass of milk and cookies, fresh out of the oven. He could still smell the scent of the vanilla and sugar, mixed with the aroma of red sauce simmering on the stove.

Coming out of his memories, he looked up at her and said, "Mom, I have some questions and I'd really appreciate it if you'd sit down with me and try to answer them honestly."

She looked at him curiously, wondering at his strange mood. This wasn't the man who was always so self-assured and comfortable in his own skin. This was her little boy, the one she'd tried to spare the hurts and disillusionment of their daily lives. She replied, "Of course, sweetheart, anything."

Joe looked into his mother's whiskey brown eyes and said, "I'd like for you to tell me about Dad; not how he was before he died, but when you met and why you married him, how he treated you back then."

The shock on Angie Morelli's face told a story in itself. She gathered her composure around herself like a veil, then looked in her son's matching eyes. "Your father wasn't always the way you probably remember him. At one time, he was handsome and charming and I thought the sun rose and set in him. I remember how shocked I was when we first met, that he actually noticed me. ME. The moviestar handsome boy at school that everyone seemed to know and the girls seemed to follow, noticed the plain girl that had just moved into the neighborhood. I didn't date before we moved here, I was so intent on my studies, determined to go to college and become a teacher like my mother. Boys were the last thing on my mind. My mother had been so supportive of my dreams. Daddy was usually at the office, and when he was home, he seemed to always have his nose in a book; I would have thought we'd have more to talk about, that we'd have more in common since we both loved to read, but he liked his 'quiet' time, so although we'd be in the same room, we didn't talk to each other aside from the necessities. We didn't just chat about our days.

"When Dad's parents died, Daddy was just kind of lost. He sold the family business and moved us out here close to his cousins. It was during the Christmas break of my junior year. When Anthony noticed me and asked me out, I pretty much stood there in shock. This handsome charming boy, a _**senior, **_asking me out. Who would have ever imagined it." Joe looked up at his mother's face while she spoke. She seemed to be a million miles away, as if she were seeing her school years in front of her. She had a beautiful smile on her face that he'd rarely ever seen. "When I finally realized that he was talking to _**me**_, that _**I **_was the girl he was asking out, I asked him, "Why?" She laughed shyly at the memory.

"He was so handsome and I'd heard the girls in class talking about him, what a catch he was, how good looking he was. I told him I'd have to get my parents' permission. He laughed and said, 'Angel, you do that and let me know.' Well, that evening at dinner, I told them that the Morelli boy had asked me out to see a movie and get pizza afterwards. Daddy seemed flustered, like this wasn't something he had ever anticipated having to deal with. Mama said that I was a smart girl and she trusted me to use good judgement, and as long as I had my chores done, and helped with the dinner first, that was fine. I'd always been Mama's shadow in the kitchen and had been cooking with her since I was little. That Friday evening was the first time I'd ever been kissed by a boy. Your father took me to Pino's, and while we were there, it seemed like everyone in the whole town came by our table. Anthony introduced me to everyone as 'his Angel' and I think I fell for him right then. After we finished eating, we went to the movies and when he got a little handsy, I told him that I wasn't that kind of girl and he needed to be a gentleman or take me home."

She looked up at that moment and saw the slight grimace on Joe's face and laughed. She told him, "I'm sure you don't want to think about me and your father being romantic; actually, I'd pretty much forgotten about those days. Well, he apologized and behaved the rest of the movie and when it was over, he took me home, kissed me on the cheek and asked me if I'd go out with him again. I accepted and we started seeing each other every weekend. The first month it was just Anthony and me. Later, we started meeting with his cousins and friends and going out in a group. He came over to the house for dinner quite often, and always told me what a good cook I was, how I was going to make such a good wife and mother. I'd tell him that I planned to go to college and get a degree. He'd laugh and say that all girls want to get married and have a family. It's just what you _**do**_ here. It wasn't something I had planned for years, yet, and **definitely** not until after I got a degree and began my teaching career, but I didn't keep reminding him, we were far too young anyway, I thought. Those dinners seemed to bring Daddy out of his shell a little, because he actually talked to Anthony about what his plans were after high school. It was the first time I realized that Anthony didn't plan to go to college, but work full time at the factory when he graduated in May. Daddy didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it, so I asked him why he wasn't going to college. He said, 'Why should I spend years getting a piece of paper when I can stay here and be four years ahead of the rest in seniority if I start right after graduation.' My father just nodded, which truly surprised me, because Daddy was big on education, too.

"I became more comfortable with Anthony and several months later, he asked me to Senior Prom. All the girls at school were terribly jealous of me, calling me rude names and saying that I came to town and stole the prize catch out from under them, like he was a fish or a piece of meat. Well, like Mama had always taught me, I just ignored them, and when they started saying things about how Anthony Morelli doesn't take a girl out and spend money on her unless he's getting something in return, I just chalked it up to jealousy, because he wasn't getting 'that' in return for anything.

"When Prom came around, Mama took me shopping for my first formal. I remember how grown up and beautiful I felt that night. My parents had a dinner planned out of town that night so we were all rushing to get ready. I wish she'd taken the time to give me some advice about boys, because that was the night I got pregnant with Anthony, Jr. Daddy had told me that I looked just like my Mama when he married her. They took pictures of us in our finery before we all left the house at the same time. They'd told me they trusted me to be home by curfew, and even gave me an extra hour... _until midnight_!

"Your father had always been a gentleman to me and aside from some kissing and a few touches he'd sneak, he behaved himself. At Prom, however, he insisted on getting my punch for me each time, and I noticed it tasted strange. I'd never had liquor and didn't realize that he was spiking my glass each time. Needless to say, he wasn't quite the gentleman that night. When I got home, my parents were still gone, which was a good thing, because my dress was torn and I was already dizzy and sick. Anthony had to stop twice on the way home so I wouldn't get sick in his car. He helped me inside, then left immediately '_so the neighbors wouldn't talk,' _he said."

Joe stood up and walked to the sink, his hands gripping the edge and his head hanging low, his back bent. He was thinking about all the girls from school; God, how many had there been? Was he really just like his father? He never took advantage of them or forced them. Yeah, he'd pushed a little and 'applied a little pressure' because his Dad had always told them that 'a nice girl will keep telling you no, even though she really wants it, because she doesn't want to seem easy. Usually, those nos will turn into yeses after a few Morelli kisses and enough of the Morelli touch.' Was that how Stephanie felt? God, his father got his mother drunk and took advantage of her. How much worse does it get? And why did his stomach feel sick hearing her tell this and hearing his father's words in his head? _**WAS**_ he like his father? How much did his father contribute to his actions and how much was his own arrogance? He thought about Stephanie laying on the floor behind the eclair case and the look on her face. Thinking back, it wasn't excitement and desire he remembered seeing, it was a little bit of affection and mostly fear. Grabbing two glasses and the iced tea from the refrigerator, he sat at the table again to hear the rest, no matter how much he just wanted to forget this day.

His mother looked up at him, and after a few moments, continued her story. "School ended and shortly after, I suspected I was pregnant. All my plans, college, teaching, were gone. Poof. Just like that. When I told my parents, the disappointment was more than I could handle. I couldn't tell my father what really happened, because I was afraid he'd kill Anthony, so I let myself be pushed into a wedding and dropped out of school. We got married shortly afterwards and moved in with Anthony's family until he could save enough money to move out. I thought it would be nice getting to spend time with his mother, but Bella kept saying how I "trapped her poor Anthony" and things weren't going as well as he'd planned. We finally moved into a small apartment and I thought things would get better. He hated working at the factory. The money that seemed so big in High School, barely took care of essentials and there was no more going out, movies or dinners out. He told me, 'Why should I take you out when we have perfectly good food here at home, and wives cook for their husbands. Money don't grow on trees, Angel.' He always talked down to me, like I wasn't smart enough to figure that out, just because I didn't graduate. The bigger I got from the pregnancy, the more he needed to get out of the house and away from my crying, after he'd hurt my feelings. I would sit in our room and cry while he got ready to go out, because I was miserable there by myself when he was out. I was feeling huge from the baby, even though by then, I'd accepted it and was excited about my baby. I started to suspect he was seeing other women when I smelled perfume on his clothes. He said it was just my imagination or pregnancy hormones. I wanted so badly to believe him.

"Then, he got laid off from the factory. He started coming home smelling like liquor and would be short-tempered with me. He'd say I couldn't do anything right, why didn't I learn to make his mother's marinara, that mine was bland. My lasagna was soggy. My pot roast was dry. My roast chicken needed "something" but it wasn't right. He'd make comments like, 'I can't even have friends over to eat because you're so incompetent; I'm embarrassed to feed them this food.' I think he realized that he wasn't ready for the kind of responsibility that came with a wife and child. He'd get angry over every little thing. When the unemployment ran out, he had to take the first job he could get and he was truly miserable. That's when his temper really got bad. One morning, I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions and asked him to come straight home after work because I was scared. He said, 'I'm busting my ass earning a living for you; the least you can do is appreciate it.' I told him, 'If you hadn't gotten me drunk and had sex with me, I'd be working towards college right now.' That's when he hit me. He said, 'you think you're better than me with wanting your college degree but I don't see you doing anything but sitting on your ass bitching at me. You women are all alike. Think you're better than everyone else, think a man working to earn a wage isn't as good as a college boy.'

"I was shocked. I sat there holding the side of my face and he looked at me and said he'd be home when he got home and he left for work. That evening, he came home two hours late with flowers for me and told me he was sorry he lost his temper, that he'd just been worried about bills and how he was going to take care of us and a baby on his wages. He had liquor on his breath and his clothes were rumpled, but I didn't say anything. What could I do? I was almost 9 months pregnant, married, and my parents had basically deserted me out of disappointment. I wondered what happened to the boy that called me 'his Angel' and took me out and proudly showed me around to his friends. Now, all of a sudden, I was incompetent and an embarrassment to him, most of his friends were still single and they'd laugh at him saying things like he needed to get home to his 'ball and chain' and that he was going to have bloodshot eyes, not from being up late drinking, but staying up for 2am feedings and diapering, and his cologne would be eau-de-baby powder.

"He found fault with every dish I cooked, even though it was the exact same recipe I'd cooked for every meal he had at our house with my parents. If I took the car to the store and had to call him because it wouldn't start when I got ready to leave, he'd show up with a couple of friends or his brothers and start in on how I couldn't even go to the damn store without needing his help, I couldn't even drive the car without breaking it. I think he was just so unhappy and didn't know how to handle the life he'd always wanted now that he had it and it wasn't all fun and games. He had laughed at me for dreaming of college instead of what we now had. Most of the time, I just let his words run off my back, but I'd always had a strong spirit before my parents basically disowned me, and when the fire came back and I'd argue with him, he hated it, probably because he knew I was right, and he'd take it out on me with his fists. Later, he'd hit all of us, when he was drinking, for the noise, for there never being enough money to go around with the children always needing something for school. By the time you came around, Joey, I had quit caring about him calling **ME **incompetent and an embarrassment, and just tried to keep him off of you kids as much as possible until he died."

Joe sat there listening to his mother, his stomach churning again, feeling like he did before he threw up behind his truck, remembering Ranger's words: _"Stephanie doesn't need that kind of __**LOVE**__. You don't love her, you want to possess her, to show the 'Burg you won, that you finally got control of the girl that turned her back on everything she despised, that __**they**__ wanted to turn her into. You want to trap her inside your house, cooking your meals, washing your clothes and sucking your cock; just so you can flip the finger at the 'Burg, who called you poor, white trash when you were a snot-nosed kid, whose daddy drank away his paycheck, then came home and beat the fuck out of his wife and kids. You never _learned_ the meaning of the word love. _

_"You wonder why she doesn't want that life? Why she doesn't want to raise the next generation of assholes who think love is screaming at their girlfriends in public and berating them in front of friends? It's not because I seduced her away from you with my bank account or cars. It's because she finally figured out that love is __**really**__ support and encouragement, even if it's something she's not the best at. It's picking her up, dusting her off and telling her she'll get him tomorrow, then making __**sure**__ she's got someone watching her back so she DOES. It's helping her to succeed and being happy when she feels proud of herself. __**That's**__ the reason she ended your relationship last month and decided to move in with me." _

_"Incompetent, embarrassment, his friends laughed at him_..." those words just kept hammering and hammering at Joe's mind. Those were the very words he'd used on Stephanie over and over. While Ranger would show up at her crime scenes and say, "Proud of you, Babe," _**HE **_was telling her what an embarrassment she was, that she was incompetent, how his friends and coworkers bet on his girlfriend and how everything affected _**HIM! **_How it was time she quit 'playing at bounty hunter' and marry him; they weren't getting any younger. She was only embarrassing herself and HIM, anyway. He'd tried everything to get her to quit.

Was that how his mother felt? She'd had her own dreams that didn't include being a wife or mother until after she went to college, but his father had wanted HIS dreams and he wanted them **NOW**. Did he try to get her pregnant on purpose? Was that pregnancy just an accidental conception, or was it something more? They would never know, but again, it was the same thing, what _**HE**_ wanted.

Just like how Stephanie fought him tooth and nail for her independence. He thought back on the dinners at her parents house when his ally, Helen Plum would badger her and back him up. Steph would eventually tune it out just like his mother had learned to let the words roll off her back, or else they'd have another huge blow-up and be "off" again. If he'd gotten his way and she'd married him, would he have become his father? He recalled one point in their relationship when he actually thought about poking holes in his condoms. My God, he would have been just like his father for certain, then. Thank God he didn't do it. Would he have hit Stephanie? He knew that there were times when he was angry enough to have hit her, but something always held him back. What if all the pieces were in place and he'd had enough to drink to NOT stop and actually did hit her. Would she have forgiven him?

And Ranger's words about her feelings on marriage, _"As for marriage, she's so fright-fucked of walking in to find Joyce Barnhardt on a table, or Terri Gilman in a negligee with you jumping out of a window for the neighbors to talk about, that even the word marriage makes her nauseous." _He remembered sitting at her family's table when her grandmother outed his meeting with Terri in front of her whole family. He **KNEW **how she felt about cheating, but he didn't consider it "cheating" at the time. He should have known that she would have. He'd had to do some fast talking that day.

"Joey, are you okay?" His mother asked, as she softly covered his hand with hers across the table.

"Yeah, Ma, I'm..." He took a deep, shaky breath. "No, I'm not really okay. I just realized what went wrong between me and Steph, how I lost her. Actually, I'm surprised she stuck around as long as she did. I've been treating her exactly like Dad treated you, just without the fists."

His mother got up from her seat, walked around the table and put her arms around him. "Now that you understand where things went wrong, you have a choice. You can decide you're too set in your ways and try to find someone to force into that perfectly shaped puzzle piece you have cut out for your wife like you've been doing with Stephanie since she cleared your name, or you can look for someone that you can love with all your heart, and accept her, faults and all, and work _together _at making a marriage work. You don't have to be your father.

But, Joey, one thing you **do** need to do; if you've been treating Stephanie the way your father treated me with the hurtful words, demeaning her in front of friends, berating her, you owe her a very sincere apology. And, if you've never apologized to her for the things you wrote before you left for the Navy, you need to do that, too. That girl suffered for that. This town tore her to shreds. The rest of her school years were miserable. I _**know**_ that because I saw it and couldn't do anything about it because it would have caused more talk. Her mother punished her by grounding her to her room for the summer, and for an active girl like Stephanie, that was the definition of cruel and unusual punishment. Her senior year, all of the 'fast' boys, mostly friends of _**yours,**_ tried to make time with her because of your public writings, so she quit accepting dates after the first few. She missed out on all of the fun dances and her Senior Prom and everything a sweet girl like Stephanie looks forward to for years.

"You stole that from her along with her reputation. Stephanie was always too independent to fit into the life you wanted. She wasn't cut out to live her life waiting on a husband hand and foot, sitting home raising children. She'd be miserable living this life. I can see the attraction, though, because she's so beautiful, outgoing, friendly and with her bubbly, caring attitude, boys couldn't help but be drawn to her. She didn't deserve the treatment she got after her reputation was trashed, especially the way her mother treated her. Between you and me, I wouldn't wish Helen Plum as a mother on any child I cared about. Although I love my children with all my heart, I still resent your father for destroying my dream. If he'd waited a few years, let me get my teaching certification, we might have **had** the life he'd wanted."

Joe sat there thinking about that. Yeah, he might owe her an apology for that, but he wasn't ready to give it to her just yet. She was living with Manoso, and after his words, he wasn't ready to open up that wound, yet. It was still too raw. Manoso's words still grated on him, especially now that he knows how much truth there was in them. And he really, **really** hated him for being right about him and Stephanie.

He stood up from the table and took his tea glass to the sink then turned and gave his mother a hug. If he held on a little longer than he normally did, he was sure she wouldn't say anything about it. He finally turned toward the front door. His mother followed him and at the door, he turned. "Ma, thanks for telling me about this. I know it was probably the last thing you wanted to ever talk about again, but I appreciate it."

"You're welcome, son. I love you, remember that." His mother said, with a sad expression on her face. She knew it was a huge blow to him, after years of saying how he'd never be like his father; only to find out that he'd been almost the mirror image of a young Anthony Morelli. As she watched him drive off, she knew she'd be praying for him often in the days and weeks to come. He'd have to accept who he was before he'd be able to change it, and that meant letting go of Stephanie completely. She just hoped he didn't get lost along the way.

A/N: Thank you for your patience in waiting so long for this chapter. I've had half of this one and the next one written for a few months, but couldn't quite get the dialogue how I wanted it until now. Thank you, also, for the outstanding response to my first post. As a new writer, your reviews truly encouraged me and pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and get creative. Thanks again.  
Maggie M.


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